“DAOs are very powerful token-based coordination mechanism that any person now can wield outside of the legacy financial system”, said Silke Noa, core-member of the AssangeDAO, which recently raised $53 million in support of Wikileak's founder, Julian Assange. According to Noa, the fundraising campaign was "a huge success" that showed how the power of a DAO can have an impact on political and social issues. The DAO mechanism allowed anyone willing to support Assange's to make a donation in ETH and become a member of the organization. In exchange, AssangeDAO members received a proportional amount of governance tokens, JUSTICE, which …

Protesting anti-vax truckers blockading downtown Ottawa, Canada had their fund-raising platform shut down because their host fears the “promotion of violence.” The protesters move to a Bitcoin crowdsourcing funding service. It quickly raised $900,000. Russian troops gather on Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups embrace cryptocurrencies to help defend their country in the event of a coming war, according to a Feb. 8 investigation by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm. Recent reports like these raise the question: Are Bitcoin and other cryptos becoming the preferred fundraising platform for political protesters and social movements — given that cryptocurrencies don’t respect …

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has officially initiated work on the country’s cryptocurrency regulation bill, filing the first public notice on the federal legal portal. Russia’s finance ministry on Thursday filed two development notices announcing the start of the process of developing a legal framework for activities related to transactions with digital currencies and their issuance. The first notice, called “On Digital Currency,” informs about the government launching a public consultation on rules for digital asset transactions, inviting proposals from financial market participants, citizens and legal entities. The second notice details a similar process for possible amendments …

The White House will reportedly be issuing an executive order as early as next week directing government agencies to study different aspects of the digital asset space with the goal of creating a comprehensive regulatory framework. In a Thursday report from Yahoo! Finance, Jennifer Schonberger said an official familiar with the matter within the Biden administration revealed the executive order could arrive as soon as next week. The directive from President Biden would reportedly order the Office of the Attorney General, the State Department, and the Treasury Department to study the potential rollout of a U.S.-issued central bank digital currency. …

Earlier in February, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a tax proposal that would bring the relatively unregulated digital asset space under the purview of tax authorities. The proposal includes a 30% income tax on crypto returns and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) by crypto exchanges on transactions above 10,000 Indian rupees ($133). The announcement came during the parliamentary budget session for 2022, and the government has already set April 1 as a deadline for crypto exchanges to comply with the new tax regulations. The introduction of the crypto tax was widely misreported as a form of legal …

As reported by Canadian news outlet The Globe and Mail, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Canada's federal police force) sent letters to several cryptocurrency exchanges demanding that they "cease facilitating any transactions" with more than 30 specific cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to the ongoing truck protests in the country. The letter writes: "Any information about a transaction or proposed transaction in respect of these addresses, is to be disclosed immediately to the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police." Just two days prior, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, representing the ruling Liberal Party of Canada, invoked the Emergencies Act in response …

Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, has announced that the state government plans to allow residents to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies as early as summer 2022. In a Tuesday CNBC interview, Polis said crypto holders in Colorado could have the option of sending tax payments in digital currency, which the state would then convert back into fiat. The governor said that an unnamed intermediary would likely handle the exchange of crypto to fiat. “We expect by this summer — pretty soon — to accept crypto for all of our state tax-related purposes,” said Polis. “Then we plan to roll that …

Ohio’s eighth district congressman Warren Davidson has introduced the “Keep Your Coins” bill in the House of Representatives to protect individuals’ self-custodied crypto wallets from U.S. government agency control. The introduction on Feb. 15 comes just a day after the Canadian government invoked the Emergencies Act, giving it the power to freeze bank accounts and monitor large transactions (including crypto) without a court order. The move was in direct response to fundraising efforts by the COVID-19 policy-focused Freedom Convoy protesters. The name of the bill 'Keep Your Coins' is a play on KYC and refers to protections for crypto users …

Members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee have reportedly divided along party lines regarding President Joe Biden’s pick of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision for the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve. According to a Tuesday report from Reuters, Senator Pat Toomey, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, said he had asked the 12 Republican senators on the committee to not attend a meeting in which members were expected to vote on President Biden’s nominees for the Fed. Toomey reportedly said that Democratic leadership can proceed with “five of the six nominees” put forth …

House Financial Services Committee member and New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer has introduced legislation which would have the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation back stablecoins in a similar manner to fiat deposits. In a draft of the Stablecoin Innovation and Protection Act of 2022 released on Tuesday, Gottheimer proposed labeling stablecoins issued by insured depository institutions or certain nonbank issuers as “qualified.” Under this definition, the bill suggests “qualified stablecoins” are neither securities or commodities under U.S. law, and redeemable on demand from the issuer. In cases of nonbank issuers, the legislation would require the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, …

Amid more reports on the Bank of Russia rejecting the finance ministry’s proposal of cryptocurrency regulation, the central bank has kicked off trials of its own digital currency. The Russian central bank has officially launched the digital ruble trial, successfully completing the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) transfers among citizens, the Bank of Russia announced Tuesday. The launch aligns with the bank’s plans to debut the first digital ruble transactions in early 2022. Three banks out of 12 financial institutions in the digital ruble pilot group have already integrated the CBDC platform, with two of them completing a “full …

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree affirming the country’s formal support of free circulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Lukashenko’s press office announced Monday that the president has signed a decree “On the register of virtual wallet addresses and the circulation of cryptocurrency.” The document provides a legal basis for Belarus Hi-Tech Park to establish and manage a register of crypto wallet addresses used in illegal activities. The decree document specifically details the process and standards for seizing cryptocurrency from criminals by the government. The decree intends to protect crypto investors from potential losses and to “prevent unintentional …